


Mistake

by tveckling



Category: Romeo And Juliet - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Gen, Ghost!Mercutio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 16:11:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10745172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tveckling/pseuds/tveckling
Summary: Written for the prompt "Haunt me."





	Mistake

It takes some time after you die to regain any sort of conscience. For Mercutio is takes almost a week, and he wakes up in the same place he died—the hidden room in the palace he had discovered when he was a child. It isn’t hidden anymore, not after the explosion had torn the four walls apart. Mercutio probably should have known better than to try such a powerful invocation without anyone to help him, but he had been desperate. Desperate people make mistakes. Unfortunately, sometimes those mistakes hurt other people too.

Valentine is sitting on the scorched stones in front of him, and for a moment, before he remembers, Mercutio thinks Valentine sees him. But Valentine’s eyes remain focused on a point behind him, and the realization of what he has done—of what he has lost—hits him, and he cries and screams until he falls tired. He didn’t think ghosts could get tired, but he is quickly discovering there is much he doesn’t know.

For days he follows Valentine, watches him, and tries to get rid of his longing. His regret. He remains there, because he doesn’t know what has happened with Benvolio, or Romeo and his Juliet, or Tybalt, and the one time he started thinking about them he hurt so badly he thought he was dying again. He can’t do anything for any of them anyway, not any longer, so he stays with his brother. Tries to convey a feeling of peace, to ease the pain Valentine suffers from.

He almost thinks it’s working until one day when Valentine is reading a book and Mercutio realizes he knows the script Valentine is focused on. He had spent weeks learning every word on that page until he could have recited it in his sleep. He died trying to channel that script.

All too clearly he can see now what he has been too distant to see before: Valentine going through every nook and cranny of Mercutio’s room and finding the book; Valentine studying the ruined room and working out which spell Mercutio tried to cast; Valentine secretly gathering the items needed for the invocation.

With panic cursing through his mind he tries to talk to Valentine, to make him understand that the spell is too dangerous—it can finally give peace to the city, but the cost was more than Mercutio had understood from the book, and it seems like Valentine is making the same mistake. He tries to warn, tries to make Valentine see the truth, tries to make him stop, but he is just a whisper on the wind now. His tries have no effect.

As he stands next to Valentine he cries, cries for his brother and the foolish hope they had both shared, and for being so blind that he led his brother to the same end as himself. He closes his eyes as Valentine begins reciting the words Mercutio know so well, and fears will never forget. When the power begins to draw close he sighs and wipes his face and forces himself to watch what he has brought.


End file.
